The Keepers of Saffron's Forest
by Brotchen
Summary: Ranma Saotome has always been taught to do whatever it takes to reach a goal, an ideology that has backfired in the worst way possible. With his strength now draining, he seeks out Akane Tendo and her strange power to help him and his group break their curses and defeat Saffron. [AU]
1. Akane and the Injured Boy

Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.

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_**THE KEEPERS OF SAFFRON'S FOREST**_**_  
_**_CHAPTER 1:__  
_Akane and the Injured Boy__

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This was not going well and it took a lot for Ranma Saotome to come out and say it. Not that anything else could be said about the way his arm was punctured in and his leg was spouting blood. His arm was probably supposed to still be in his socket too. He was still breathing, he reminded himself. Maybe a little dizzy but…

"I ain't passed out yet," Ranma said, wiping away his sweat and soil stained brow with a strained smile. "So keep it up if ya can…"

Almost immediately steaks of blue lightning started coming down from the sky in challenge to his words.

Ranma quickly forced all the pressure on his only useful leg, dodging every shot aimed at him. The defense wasn't doing a damn thing except buying him time, though. He knew it and his mind tried in vain to think of another tactic. How the hell could he fight something that was coming from nowhere? For every strike Ranma eluded, the cobalt lightning only showered down harder and faster until the ground beneath his feet began cracking and exploding up into the air in charred remains. All the dodging of the lightning and the chunks of earth was just avoiding the inevitable in his vulnerable position and once again Ranma's body shuddered and convulsed from the powerful strike of lightning that bled into his spin.

This was just the beginning of Saffron's Forest, his mind taunted as he lay there, panting and staring up at the dark, dusty sky. The open field, now saturated with stench of freshly uprooted soil and blood, was once part of the forest and had been densely dominated by trees heavy with foliage so thick that the sky couldn't even be seen. After countless worthless attempts past the lightning a giant terrain of dead earth remained, leaving him and the others nothing more significant than walking shooting targets for the lightning wielder.

He was getting nowhere fast again, Ranma realized when he observed the all too familiar forms of the Cursed Ones creeping up from the tall iron fence behind him. At this rate, Ranma would be knocked out and those guys would be ready to swoop in. It was time to get the hell out of here and he had only managed to find one way to do that. Slowly, his hand reached for one of the two water bottles at his waist.

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It was sometime after 10:00 pm that evening when Akane finally got out of her last class. Not only was she extremely tired after a 12 hour day of non-stop cramming, but her final class left her feeling rather stupid and useless when her teacher dumped a stack of books in her arms for some light reading over the weekend. Even with Doctor Tofu as her personal tutor she was still at the bottom of all her classes. Medicine was what she loved but obviously it wasn't loving her back.

Not tonight anyways.

Maybe she should just go back to martial arts after all…

Well, there's no point in that, Akane reminded herself. She gave up on that after high school and now with Daddy having to close the dojo from lack of enrollment, there was really no place for it. The only other family that had practiced their discipline was long gone anyways and the chances of them reappearing and wanting to uphold the dojo were very unlikely. No one knows what happened to them or even if they were still alive. Akane had never met them and, quite frankly, believed that Daddy made them up.

Besides, becoming a doctor was what she really wanted to do.

"Are you sure, Akane?" Ukyou asked her while they were walking home. "You don't even seem to be having fun anymore."

"Of course I'm having fun," she retorted, though halfheartedly. "You just can't see my blissful expression of joy behind this stack of books."

"Yeah, did you need help with that library you're carrying?"

Akane shifted the giant stack in her arms. "I think I have a balance that shouldn't be bothered here. Besides, I'm just dropping these off at Doctor Tofu's clinic and then riding my bike the rest of the way."

"It's kind of late to be going there, isn't it?"

"They have emergency hours. And he's waiting for me," Akane insisted, with a smile she hoped was concealed by the books. "This is all for my tutoring session tomorrow."

"Sheesh, how many of your med classes are you failing? You have half the library in your arms."

"I'm not failing I'm just…"

"Falling."

"Exactly. I'm just falling behind but—"

"No, your books. They're—"

Akane watched in horror as very expensive medical library books showered the evening sky.

"A fitting end to a perfect day…" Akane announced, pulling a $200 book from a mud puddle.

It was almost like the med books were telling her the same thing as her grades. Just drop it. As she crawled in the street to reclaim her books Akane had a sinking feeling that this was the best she was ever going to get. All these months of studying and for what? She could barely pass a first aid certification program at the community center!

"You can always help me clean up at the restaurant," Ukyou offered after listening to Akane's school woes.

"How about help you cook?"

"You can always come and help me clean up," Ukyou repeated with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks," Akane said, catching the hint. "So was today your last class at the community center?"

"Yep, finally done with this stupid certificate. I hate when they just make up new rules for the restaurants around here. Tomorrow I have to go to North Nerima to get this baby mailed so they can stop threatening to close me down. Can you keep an eye on the place while I'm gone? With the increase in lightning storms recently it will be my luck that the restaurant catches fire while I'm gone."

"Of course. What are roommates for."

"Paying half the rent?"

"That and the occasional teaming up to knock out perverts with metal bats."

"Yeah, that was weird last night. Luckily you landed some hits on them and sent them away," she said, recalling her own inability to knock them out. "It was almost like those guys had lost their minds the way they were grabbing us like that."

"They were like all men. Animals," Akane retorted with a snort.

"Still, are you sure you don't want me to wait for you so we can go home together? There's still another bus."

"No, I'll be fine. I can take a taxi if I really need it," Akane told her as the bus came up to the bus stop. "Can you just do me a favor and put out some food for P-chan when you get home?"

"No problem. I'll probably be dead asleep when you get home so see you tomorrow?"

"Yep, see ya."

Akane released a sigh as she watched the bus lights fade away. Ukyou was so lucky that she was amazing at cooking. She never had to take classes to raise her skills, Akane noted with disdain. Cooking was in her friend's blood. And if it wasn't for the fact that Ukyou's fiancé had bailed on her, Ukyou would probably be living it up and owning a five-star restaurant. But trying to search for her stupid fiancé had drained her bank account and landed her as Akane's roommate back in West Nerima.

Even though she had told Ukyou to give it up after high school, her friend was determined to find her fiancé and make him pay for stealing their money and abandoning her and her father. After her father passed, that vengeance kind of erupted.

But Akane was just happy that Ukyou was letting it go now and just concentrating on her restaurant here. Sheesh, she didn't need a husband to help her family's business! She was amazing on her own!

Wasting so much time on a guy….What a stupid thing to do—

"Akane! I was wondering when I would see you! Come on back to my office."

Akane couldn't stop the grin that overtook her red cheeks as she greeted Doctor Tofu and begin talking about her classes. She knew she was probably talking too much, but he always listened and took an interest in everything that was going on in her life. Doctor Tofu was someone that she felt completely at ease with. Which was why she was so glad she had decided to go to college here and have him nearby. Like always.

His only clinic used to be near her father's dojo, but he expanded his practice into three locations and he would be opening up a fourth soon. His main location was now near Akane's college, almost an hour away from her father's dojo in North Nerima. What were the odds…!

"It looks like we'll have a lot of studying to do this weekend," Doctor Tofu said with a pleasant laugh.

"Sorry. I'm always taking up so much of your time."

"Don't be silly. I'm glad to help anyone who has an interest in medicine. Especially in my own field." He held up the mud-puddle victim. "Another fall?"

"Yeah…," she admitted with a blush. "I should really be more careful." Akane hesitated before saying, "It might be a little expensive to pay off…Would it be okay if I helped out here again for some extra money?"

"Anytime you're not at class, come on by," Tofu told her. "I'm always glad to have your help."

Akane told herself to stop smiling like an idiot, she really did. She just couldn't help it when she was around Doctor Tofu. Ever since she was young, she…really, really liked him.

"Tomorrow morning we'll start with your first class and work our way down, how does that sound? Not the ideal way to spend your weekends," he told her, patting her head with a smile. "You should be going out with your friends and on dates, not be stuck in this stuffy office with me."

"I like spending time with you though," Akane said, before she could stop herself. She didn't like how shy she sounded at that moment. And even more she didn't like that she was waiting for his answer like her heart depended on it.

"Then I don't feel as bad," he told her with his kind laugh. It was hard to be mad at that laugh from such a gentle person, but Akane knew she was hoping for a different answer. Her spirits dropped a bit but she managed to thank him again for all his help.

"Tomorrow at 10, then?" she said, pulling awkwardly at her long black hair. "I can bring breakfast."

"It's a date," he agreed.

Akane turned her bright red face away and practically flew out the door. She really just needed to just say how she felt but there was just sort of a big reason why she shouldn't. And even though that person was an hour away, Akane knew that Doctor Tofu still thought about her. That was another attribute that Akane loved about him, but at the same time made her miserable. His devotion to someone far away. After all, Akane was the one who was here…She saw him everyday…She even brought him lunch on his long shifts.

At least it was peaceful tonight, Akane mused in optimism as she rode her bike home. Not any more of those creepy groping guys out. Last night guys had come up to her and Ukyou, not saying anything but just grabbing at them. It didn't even seem purposeful, just frantic. Probably just drunk people, but still disturbing. Luckily they had been coming back from softball practice and had their bats handy. Not that Akane and Ukyou couldn't bust out some martial arts skills either.

Looks like it's not as peaceful as I thought, Akane sighed as she saw two silhouettes in the distance.

Although instead of coming toward her they seemed to be going over to a playground on the left side of the road. Something was on the ground, it looked like. Maybe they had left a jacket in their drunken fun, she mused and began to look away. Though people usually didn't start mercilessly kicking and punching their clothes. And the clothes most certainly didn't groan and flail about.

No baseball bat this time, Akane reminded herself as she veered in their direction, but she couldn't just let someone get pounded on. What if it was a girl they had groped and abducted?! Before she could double think her actions, Akane was leaping away from her bike and soaring through the air to kick one guy in the face. The heel of her hand landed nicely in the other guy's jaw with a crack. Her uppercut and back kick hadn't gotten too rusty either, she noted with satisfaction. The guys didn't give her time to test out the rest of her skill level though; they were already retreating with blood back into the street.

These guys were even aimlessly fighting, Akane thought as she watched their forms retreat.

Akane knelt down next to their victim but it was too dark to see the face too clearly. It was definitely a guy, though. _Poor guy,_ she mused. He probably didn't know what was coming and those creepers really did a number on him. His arm was hanging out of its socket and his leg was completely caked in blood. If he wasn't wearing such a deep red Chinese-style shirt, Akane wagered that more blood would be visible on his chest. For such a muscular looking guy, how did he get in such bad shape?

Bad shape. Hurt. Bleeding….!?

As if the situation finally slapped her in the face, Akane jumped up with a start and ran back to her bike to retrieve her first aid kit from class and her cellphone.

After a rather desperate call to Doctor Tofu, Akane glued herself to the poor boy's side, apologizing for just staring at him and not helping.

"What did they do to you?!" she asked the unconscious boy, as she feverishly began working on his bloody leg and popping his arm back into it's socket. These were the kinds of injuries you saw in your textbook, not in your neighborhood playground. It was like half of his arm was broken! Anytime the boy flinched or groaned from her administrations, Akane felt less like a doctor in training and more like a helpless child with one of those make-believe first aid kits.

"It's okay," she told him, even petting his hair and stroking his cheek. "Help is coming and I'm here. It's okay, I'm right here."

Akane cursed her trembling hands while she tried to stop all the bleeding, but the blood was even seeping into her green dress and getting into her long hair. If there was any time to remember anything from the classes she was failing, this would be it! she mentally yelled at herself. Why didn't she have all those stupid books here when she needed them!?

Too caught up trying to recall her med classes as she fumbled through her first aid supplies, Akane didn't notice her patient wasn't as unconscious as she thought. An arm came around her waist and forced her backwards into his chest.

She didn't even have a chance to scream. The last thing she remembered was a hand over her mouth before everything went black.

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_To be continued in the next chapter: **Ranko and the Kidnapper.**_

_Thank you for reading!_


	2. Ranko and the Kidnapper

Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.

**A/N:** Thank you again to everyone for leaving me such great reviews and comments on my first chapter. As suggested, I have changed the summary and cleared up some errors in the first chapter. Thank you!

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**_THE KEEPERS OF SAFFRON'S FOREST_****_  
_**_CHAPTER 2:__  
_Ranko and the Kidnapper__

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"That wasn't necessary," Shinnosuke insisted as Ranma came in carrying an unconscious girl in his arms. "You said she was helping you, not attacking you."

"She wasn't helping so much as stuffing cotton balls in my cuts," Ranma corrected as he set the girl on a beaten down couch and tossed a ragged blanket over her. Dusting his bloody hands off, as if finishing a job well done, Ranma headed towards what someone might call a kitchen at the opposite end of the room.

The tiny studio apartment was on the top floor of a rather dilapidated abandoned building located at the south border of West Nerima. Barely noticed by the rest of their neighbors that spent their days waltzing around, minding their own business; it served as a perfect place to crash. Rent was decent, being free and all and Ranma and Shinnosuke weren't exactly planning on making this a lifetime investment. All they needed was a good place in the vicinity of Saffron's Forest.

Free rent didn't come with all perks and there were some admitted downsides in bunking in an abandoned place. For one, you didn't get any electricity or heat in this place. The lack of heat wasn't a deal-breaker since it was late May and the temperature was decent enough to be in short sleeves, but the lack of electricity was a constant issue that had them walking into walls and each other. Even though the dawn was starting to break now and the room was being graced with some hazy light thanks to their east-facing window, it wasn't much to go by. Ranma could barely make out Shinnosuke walking over to the couch from just 8 feet away. Not that there was much to see in this dump if they had decent lightning.

Him and Shinnosuke traveled light and their backpacks, currently spilling out with clothes and oh so carefully flung against the west wall next to a useless half-closet; were the only things they had in the decaying room aside from the couch and a tiny dorm fridge. The fridge itself was only useful at keeping their food chilled when there was a bag of ice in there, something Ranma noted was currently missing as he stared at the only Styrofoam container crammed in the back of the thing. It was cold enough though, and he shrugged and pulled it out.

After staring at the couch for a moment, Shinnosuke said, "And what was the point of bringing her here again?"

"She was able to take on the Cursed Ones."

"What? How?"

"Didn't see how, but she did something that sent them running before they damn well tore my arm off." Ranma took a seat on the small fridge and popped open the container. "Usually the only thing that sends those guys away is a good splash of warm water and a hard kick back into Saffron's Forest."

"If you wanted to know how she did it, why did you knock her out?" Shinnosuke asked, going back to his original statement. "She's not going to give you any useful information unconscious."

Ranma shrugged, continuing to eat. "Seemed like the right thing to do."

"**Ranma! ! !**"

The already poor excuse for an entrance door nearly bust into splinters to reveal Ryoga Hibiki stomping in, looking like a ghoul emerging from the shadows. The guy had always been on the seriously dramatic side since they first met as kids, and for that it was hard for Ranma to take the guy seriously at times. Even Ryoga's powerful entrance with his fist drawn and his fang-like teeth barring as he stamped his way into the dawn illuminated room was lost on Ranma, who kept his precious attention on his food as Ryoga pounded him on the head.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Shinnosuke said you kidnapped a girl! A girl from town! Where is she?! Who is she?! Where did you take her from?!"

"Hey, Ryoga. Made it back to us in under a week this time. That's a new record…"

Ryoga snacked him upside the head. "This isn't time for jokes, Saotome. Who did you kidnap? Where is she?"

"Why the hell does it matter?" Ranma said, hoping Ryoga's anger kept him from noticing her across the room. "I'm only keepin' her for a few hours."

"I've lived here for years and I know that when someone goes missing people are going to rally together in mobs and start searching for her and our cover will be blown!"

"Man, you're noisy," Ranma muttered, still eating. "Taking one girl for a bit isn't gonna attract Saffron's attention, he doesn't give a damn about anyone here. That's why he has no problem being so close."

"Once a big search for her starts, it's going to put attention on us!" Ryoga insisted.

"It ain't like I'm planning to keep her as a pet," Ranma snapped back. "I just gotta find out how she scared off those Cursed Ones without water and then I'm taking her back. We gotta know because there's going to be more of them once we get past that damn lightning. Unless you want to be the one to carry around 10 gallons of boiling water on your back the whole way."

"You really think that after kidnapping her, she's just going to sit down with you and have a nice conversation about how she defeated those guys?" Ryoga challenged.

"I guess we'll see, won't we?" Ranma replied, impassively.

"Let him deal with whatever happens with the girl, Ryoga," Shinnosuke said, heading towards the door with his pushbroom in hand. "He's useless to us right now with those injuries anyways. It's our turn to try and get past that lightning again."

"I ain't useless," Ranma insisted, waving them away. "I just need to wash off a bit and I'll be fine."

"Take her back before we return! Or else I will!" Ryoga threatened, shutting the door behind him.

"That's the closet," Ranma called out to the directionally challenged boy.

"I knew that!" Ryoga shouted back, opening the closet door and stomping towards the correct one.

Ranma passed a glance at Shinnosuke and said, "And this guy is supposed to be guiding us around when he can't find his way out of an apartment?"

"He's lived here for awhile, so he knows this place the best," Shinnosuke responded with his usual seriousness. "At this point, we're not relying on his sense of direction, only what he knows about the area around Saffron's Forest and…What's on the couch? The Chinese girl again?"

Between Ryoga walking into closets and Shinnosuke forgetting what was happening, it was a wonder they had gotten as far as they did, Ranma thought.

"Just remember to take whoever the girl is back," Ryoga reiterated before closing the door. Only to open it and say with a smirk, "That yellow stuff you're eating isn't food I brought, by the way. It was here when you guys moved in," prompting Ranma to spit out the yellowish mush.

Like Ranma really needed to be told to take her back. It's not like he wanted to make a hobby out of taking girls from town.

After thoroughly washing his mouth out from whatever the hell that yellow junk was, Ranma went over to the couch to begin poking the girl in the cheek. After saying "Oy" really loudly and getting no reply, Ranma tried pinching her cheek, only to have the still unconscious girl slap him hard across the face and mumble something that sounded like pervert.

Ranma rubbed his cheek with a frown as he came to crouch beside her. This girl was no ordinary girl…Attacking people in her sleep even…

From the looks of her, she had to be about his age if not younger. The dark-green sleeveless dress she was wearing made her somehow look older though, or at least dumper. Her long black hair, still stained with blood, seemed to be weighing her down and he had to pull it away in order to get a better look at her face. As she rolled on to her side and curled into herself with a smile, Ranma decided she could easily be considered cute. Even with his blood still splattered against her chest and pale legs, she had that sort of peaceful and innocent look about her that made him want to cock his head to the side and take another closer look.

As he absently used his thumb to rub off a splotch of blood near her lips, Ranma begrudgingly admitted that Ryoga might actually be right for once and he put off his thoughts in waking her up. She probably wasn't going to volunteer information too easily when she was talking to someone that yanked her off the street like that. It had been a brash reaction that he partially regretted, but there was no amending that now. He couldn't even make it out like he was a victim in all this too since she probably had some recollection of him being the one to grab her.

There was only one way to go about this, Ranma decided. Luckily, he only needed to pull it off long enough to get the information from her and get her the hell out of here so he could get back to more important things.  
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Ukyou was not a morning person. So the fact that she had to get up early to go all the way to North Nerima just to drop off this stupid certificate was not sitting well with her. Her restaurant always sat with a perfect 100% inspection and her food was so well-known that people came from North, South and East Nerima just for a bite. So what was the deal with forcing her to do all these classes? All these stupid bureaucratic procedures were really starting to bother her. Not to mention disturb her sleep patterns.

Already in her sleep dazed state she had put her hair brush in her mouth and her toothbrush in her hair.

"Stupid mint toothpaste with extra baking soda," she mumbled, as she pulled it out of her hair on her walk into the kitchen.

In her distracted state of rinsing her hair out in the kitchen sink, she barely took notice that P-chan hadn't returned that night and that his food dish was still full. She also didn't catch on to the fact that the pile of dirty clothes she had waved goodbye to on Akane's bed was in fact not her roommate.

Instead Ukyo continued on her way, now running for the early bus.

For so early in the morning there sure were a lot of people out, she noted as she weaved her way through them. Although part of the greater metropolis in it's own right, West Nerima wasn't exactly Shinjuku. This many people functioning before 6:00 a.m. was nearly unheard of. What was more bizarre was that they were all guys dressed in very shabby clothes and heading in the direction of Saffron's Forest.

Maybe there was a business outing there today?

Yeah, right. Like anyone would want to host an event in that creepy forest, Ukyou mused. Her and Akane had lived here for three years and they had never even considered taking a stroll in there on their Sunday runs. Mostly because Akane was kind of freaked out by the place, having had a bad experience getting lost in there as a child. Besides the unnecessarily high fence and the sign that said 'Private Property,' the eerie forest didn't exactly have a welcoming air. Rumor had it that the person who owned all those arches was someone mentally distressed who claimed to be immortal only to be struck by lightning and die on the spot.

So what was with all the people heading that way today?

I don't have time for riddles, she wearily reminded herself as she ran faster. She had to get out of here and come back in time for the dinner rush. If she didn't, Akane might try to cook for her customers while she was gone again! And, to her, that was ten times more frightening than Saffron's Forest.

"Ukyou, what are you doing up so…Hey! Hey!"

"Sorry, can't talk, Ryoga!" Ukyou said, running past him. "Going to miss the bus!"

"What? Bus? What bus?" Ukyou heard Ryoga run up behind her. "Where are you going?"

"North Nerima."

"North Nerima?" he repeated. "Why? Is Akane visiting her parents this weekend?"

"No, I gotta drop that stupid certificate off for the restaurant, remember? What are you doing up so early?" Ukyou passed him a grin. "Hoping to catch Akane and walk her to Doctor Tofu's again? You fox!" She playfully punched him in the arm as he rubbed the sore spot and denied doing anything like that.

But Ukyo wasn't stupid and she knew from the moment Ryoga saw Akane that the boy was smitten. He did everything from appearing on Akane's way to school, to happening to pass by their softball games. Ryoga would even show up at their apartment sometimes with flowers that someone just happened to give him and chocolates that he had bought and wanted to share.

"You should just ask her out and stop hiding around alley corners!" Ukyou told him with an encouraging nudge. Unfortunately it was in the same arm that she had punched him and he flinched again. "Why are you being so shy, sugar? If you don't hurry up and make a move, someone else will!"

"You really think I should?" he asked, rather seriously. "Do you think she'd say yes? How do you think I should do it? Should I call her? Or text her? Where should I take her? When should I take her?"

Ukyo smiled and shook her head and she watched Ryoga fumble over his words and smile like a love struck child. Her and Akane had met Ryoga in a bizarre way that included some nudity on his part and some use of metal bats on her and Akane's part. But that's probably why they were such good friends now, after such a memorable meeting you can't really forget each other.

And though Ryoga had instantly fallen for Akane, Ukyo seemed to have fallen more into the category of his close confident. A role she appreciated thoroughly, especially when she got to poke fun at his undying affection for her roommate.

"You're working at my restaurant tonight, right? Ask her then," she suggested as she hopped up on the bus. "Text me later and we can talk about it!"

"Wait! That wasn't the reason I was following you!" Ryoga called, chasing the bus. "I wanted to know if you had anymore leftover food in the big freezer."

"Your deadbeat friends are still in town?" Ukyou called back, sticking her head out the bus window and frowning. "When are they going to start feeding themselves?! Don't they have jobs yet?"

"They'll only be here for a few more days," he promised, still running in stride with the bus.

"Fine but tell them after this if they want anymore food they'll have to come and actually do some work at my restaurant!" And with that, Ukyo shut the window and watched as Ryoga nearly tripped over one of those shabbily dressed men wandering the streets.  
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It was the smell more than anything that forced Akane to open her eyes. What the heck was that smell? Had she missed her turn to take the garbage out again? Or had she left something on the stove top for the second time this week? If she burned up another one of Ukyo's good pots she was really going to hear about it. As bad as that stunk, this was worse. It smelled more like the freshly dug up soil when they would fix up the softball ground during the spring, but with a more burnt and smoky smell to it. After trying in vain to ignore it, Akane was forced to sit up and cough because it was so overwhelming.

In the middle of trying to rub her face, as if that would get rid of the smell, Akane's body froze up. This was not her room, she instantly realized. This was not her bed and whatever the heck was on her was not her blanket! Akane jumped up, chucking the dirty, smelly thing across the tiny room where it landed in a pile of junk near a closet. It was some sort of studio apartment, but not belonging to anyone she knew. Everything from the mold on the walls to the ants crawling on the carpet was unfamiliar and terrifying to her rapidly beating heart.

It was then that the image of that poor injured boy came flashing back to her. His wounded arm and his bloody legs and…and his hand that had come over her mouth and kidnapped her! ! ! Some thanks for the first aid! Akane thought. There were more pressing matters at hand but what were the odds that the first person she helps out with all her highly expensive medical training kidnaps her?! This was worse than when she was little and someone had actually attacked her for trying to help them!

"You're finally up!"

Akane quickly spun and went into a defensive stance, prepared to use any means necessary to take out that stupid kidnapper only to see that a petite red-haired girl was staring at her in the middle of the dirty apartment. For as bad as Akane felt, the smaller girl looked worse. There were cuts on her face and hands and though Akane couldn't see any blood on the girl's white Chinese style shirt, they looked wrinkled and disheveled, like they had just been pulled out of a backpack or a dresser drawer. In spite of all the scruffy appearance, she had a sweetness in her presence that was entirely out of place in the disgusting apartment. Her eyes, which drew Akane's attention the most, were radiating with concern as she took a careful step towards forward.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked, frowning.

Akane slowly lowered her stance. "I've been better…Where am I?"

"I don't know," the girl said. "I think we were taken here."

Akane looked around the beaten down apartment with disdain. "What sort of kidnapper takes a person and then flees? He must be really stupid."

The girl laughed a little nervously. "Yeah, stupid. But we can make our escape, right? I found a way out, but I didn't want to leave without you."

"Oh." Akane completely dropped her stance and smiled as best as she could for the situation. "Thank you."

"Come on," said the girl, smiling a little too. "Let's go before they come back!"

"They?" Akane questioned, even as she followed her out the door. "How do you know there's more than one?"

"Oh, well…That's what it sounded like, I mean. I was pretending to be asleep and I thought I heard more than one voice." She laughed nervously again. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"...Sure."

"How did you fight off those guys that were attacking your kidnapper?"

"The drunk guys?"

"Sure, sure. Drunk guys. What did you do?"

"I used some martial arts moves I learned when I was younger. Since they were drunk, they really didn't fight back and just sort of walked away," Akane responded slowly. "But wait-you saw them attacking my kidnapper?"

The girl tripped a little on the way down the darkened staircase but Akane quickly reached out to hold her arm so the girl could reclaim her balance. "Oh, well, I saw you in the distance helping him and then when he grabbed you, I came running over to help but he must have got me too."

Struck with instant regret, Akane immediately apologized for getting her into this dangerous situation and thanked her profusely for trying to help, but the red-haired girl really didn't seem to be too preoccupied with the fact that her life had been put in danger and might possibly still be. Things happen, she said in an airy way as she skillfully jumped over four missing steps in the stairwell. Akane hadn't even seen the missing planks in the dim light, so how had the girl?

"So what sort of martial arts moves did you use on them?" the girl asked, offering her hand. Akane accepted the help with a smile as she took the leap to the girl's side.

"Just punches and kicks, I think. Nothing special."

"It had to be more than that! Think!"

Akane took a step back, dropping the girl's hand from the suddenly almost boyish tone of her voice. But the cute, red-haired girl quickly recovered with another adorable smile as she began walking again.

"I mean, I tried fighting them off too, but nothing was working. So I was just wondering. In case it happens again…"

Taking in how small the girl was, Akane wasn't surprised that a punch from her wouldn't do any good. Maybe that was why the girl got all defensive just now, she was growing concerned that it might happen to her again and she needed something to protect herself, Akane concluded. So she said, "I used my softball bat on them before. That worked too."

"Softball bat?" The girl stopped walking and spun around to face her. "Where is it? Do you think I could borrow it?!"

Akane watched the girl grab her arms and pull Akane close to her before slowly saying, "I guess, if you want. It's at my place, though-"

"Let's go there then! It would make me feel safe…Being such a defenseless girl and all…" She gave that nervous giggle again.

Akane couldn't find anything to distrust in the sweet voice or the expressive eyes of the red-haired girl, but at the same time there was something that didn't feel right as she followed her. Not that Akane was going to stay in that apartment and wait to see her other option. The not feeling right was probably more in due to the fact that she and this girl had been abducted. If the girl was sounding weird, it was probably because she was scared about what had all happened too. There really was no need to place all her fears on this tiny girl who was helping her! Akane decided.

"I'm Akane, by the way," she said, as they continued their descent. "What's your name?"

The girl sounded like she was muttering to herself so Akane poked her shoulder. "What did you say?"

"My name? Oh, my name. Right. It's Ran…ko."

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_To be continued in the next chapter: _**_An Afternoon Fight._**

_Thank you for reading!_


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